I Think I Love You | Randy

track 35. are you ready for love? - elton john

Say the word and I'll be there, loving you forever.

***

"I'm going to class today."

"No you're not."

"Get out of my way."

"Andrew Robert Fowler."

"Ryan Leonard Beaumont."

I may have won the stare off but I was no match for Rye's physical strength. I groaned as he wedged himself firmly between me and the front door.

"Rye, I'm bored!" I whined. "I'm gonna fail out if I miss another class."

"If I can have a breakdown and miss a month and still pass, then you can miss a week Mr Straight A's." Rye countered.

"But it's been a week," I argued.

"It's been five days."

"A business week then."

"Did the doctor say take it easy for a business week or an actual week, Andy?"

I glared at him, but Rye wasn't having it.

"Bed. Now."

"Fuck you," I muttered as I sulkily made my way back towards my bedroom, throwing my bag at the couch on the way there.

"That attitude will get your nowhere," Rye tutted as he followed me.

"No you are getting me nowhere. Literally."

"I'll bake you up some nuggies?" Rye shot me a cute look, making me even more annoyed at him when I couldn't help but crack a smile. "There he is," Rye teased, triumphant.

"Just get in the kitchen, Beaumont."

It was equally surprising to the both of us when a maintenance team sent by the university had shown up on our doorstep two days after I got out of hospital to replace our oven. We'd both just got so used to it being broken. A part of me had thought that perhaps this was too little, too late, but as soon as we cooked the first celebratory batch of chicken nuggets from the comfort of our own home I'd changed my mind. Maybe it was just in time.

"Hey," I said, hitting pause on the movie we were watching on my laptop as we munched on the crispy fruits of Rye's labour. "Liv just text. Sonny's getting discharged today."

"That's great," Rye smiled. "We should go round later to say hey."

"Maybe tomorrow. Let's give them the day to settle in."

"Good idea. We should invite Jack and Brook as well."

"Definitely."

Rye smirked at me. "So does that mean you're okay with missing another day of class?"

I rolled my eyes at him affectionately. "Maybe I can handle one more."

As much as I'd grumbled about getting bored, the past week- well, five days- had been nice. Rye and I had looked after each other. While that had mostly entailed him badgering me to stay in bed and getting cross when I even attempted to lift a finger, it had been much more than that too. Being near him was good for me, and I was good for him as well. Though we hadn't talked through any of our issues yet, we hadn't needed to. Between us, we could just feel that this recovery period was more than physical; my heart was beginning to heal too.

I'd been able to settle back in to the comfort of our routine while being medically prohibited from fucking things up with sex. Sure we'd cuddled a lot, shared a comforting kiss or two even when we couldn't help ourselves, but after everything that had happened it hadn't felt like such a big deal. Like Jack had said at the hospital, what mattered was that we had each other.